Correspondence

Abstract

One root of the resurgence of interest in the place of religion in human affairs lies in the postmodernist critique of materialist explanations, combined with the heightened sense of living in a new, possibly ‘post-secular’, age distinct from classical modernity. Secular ideologies such as Marxism have lost ground since the end of the cold war saw the resurgence of ethnic and religious violence in some of the successor states to Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. The theocratic character of the Iranian revolution and the rise of the religious right in the United States also help to explain why religion is the defining characteristic of the new order which Samuel Huntington portrays as the ‘clash of civilizations’. The events following 11 September 2001 have done little to distract from the preoccupation with religious fundamentalism.